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Updated: June 23, 2025
Later on at the public dinner which he had come down to attend, he was amply assured as to the sudden wave of prosperity which was passing over the whole country. Mr. Bullsom, with an immense expanse of white shirt, a white waistcoat and a scarlet camellia in his button-hole, beamed and oozed amiability upon every one.
I've taken the chair at political dinners and meetings for the last twenty years. I know the runs, and the people of Medchester know me. Why not, indeed? Mr. Brooks, sir, you're a genius." "You 'ave given him something to think about," Mrs. Bullsom murmured, amiably. "I'd be willing enough but for the late hours. They never did agree with Peter did they? He's always been such a one for his rest."
The significance of his speech was not immediately apparent. "Henslow! Oh, yes. Committee meeting this afternoon, wasn't it?" some one remarked. "I do not mean Henslow," Mr. Bullsom replied. "I mean Kingston Brooks." The desired sensation was apparent. "Why, he's your new agent, isn't he?" "Young fellow who plays cricket rather well." "Great golfer, they say!"
Bullsom continued, his right thumb finding its way to the armhole of his waistcoat. "I'm going to drop a hint at the first opportunity I get, quite casually, that whichever of you girls gets married first gets a cheque from me for one hundred thousand pounds." Even Selina was staggered. Mrs. Bullsom was positively frightened. "Mr. Bullsom!" she said. "Peter, you ain't got as much as that?
Don't tell me!" "I am worth to-day," Mr. Bullsom said, solemnly, "at least five hundred thousand pounds." "Peter," Mrs. Bullsom gasped, "has it been come by honest?" Mr. Bullsom smiled in a superior way. "I made it," he answered, "by locking up forty thousand, more than half of what I was worth, for five years. But I knew what I was about, and so did the others.
Selina entered in a fever for fear a cab which her father was signalling should, after all, respond to his summons. Mr. Bullsom found his breath taken away. "We couldn't possibly take your lordship's carriage," he protested. "I have only a few steps to go, Mr. Bullsom, and it would be a kindness, for my horses are never more than half exercised. At 10:30 to-morrow then."
Brooks, relieved that his explanation with Mr. Bullsom was over, was sufficiently entertaining at dinner-time. He sat between Selina and Louise, and made himself agreeable to both. Mr. Bullsom for half the time was curiously abstracted, and for the remainder almost boisterous. Every now and then he found himself staring at Brooks as though at some natural curiosity.
"Nor are we ever likely to," Brooks answered, smiling. "You know, Miss Bullsom, your father was my first client of any importance, and I shan't forget how glad I was to get his cheque." "I'm very pleased that he was useful to you," Selina answered, impressively. "Will you tell me something that we want to know very much?" "Certainly!" "Are you really not coming back to Medchester to live?"
"People must call," Selina answered, "if you subscribe to the hounds, and you must get made a magistrate." "We have lived here for a good many years," Mr. Bullsom said, "and there are very superior people living almost at our doors whom even you girls don't know to bow to." Selina tossed her head. "Superior, you call them, do you? A silly stuck-up lot, I think.
Bullsom," she answered. "That was different. I was deeply indebted to Mr. Bullsom, and anxious to see him returned. That, too, was work. It is only pleasures which I have denied myself." "That," she remarked, "is the nicest in fact, the only nice thing you have said. You have changed since Enton." "I have been through a good deal," he said, wearily. She shuddered a little.
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